Making Waves Academy celebrated the expansion of its Richmond campus on Saturday that enables the public charter school to grow to as many as 1,500 students by 2024.
The expansion adds another 14 acres and 250,000 square feet of teaching space on the campus at 4123 Lakeside Drive, which currently serves students from 5th through 12th grades and aims to one day add Kindergarten through 4th grades, according to Making Waves Foundation.
Campus additions include four new and renovated buildings that feature state-of-the-art science classrooms, a maker space, a black box theatre, a culinary classroom, music rooms, open learning areas, a student gardening area, a restorative justice center, and a parent resource center.
The expansion isn’t over. In the next phase of the campus project, Making Waves Foundation hopes to build sports facilities for the school and community.
MWA CEO Alton B. Nelson, Jr. said each classroom has access to technology tools that support “an engaging, differentiated and rigorous approach to learning.”
“MWA’s new state-of-the-art campus supports students in developing 21st century skills such as communication, collaboration, critical thinking, and creativity,” MWA CEO Alton B. Nelson, Jr. said in a statement. “Our goal is for 100 percent of our students to be college and career ready.”
They’re pretty close to that goal already. Last June, the academy high school’s graduation rate was 99 percent, and 95 percent of graduates were accepted and committed to attend college, according to school officials.
Making Waves Academy opened in 2007, born out of a 20-year history of serving youth in Richmond through an afterschool program.
For more information, visit Making Waves Academy’s website here.
